Envy and Greed

THE EDITOR: At the end of each year, Trinidad and Tobago seems stricken by arthritis! The latest fuss by the Barbadian Prime Minister smacks of paranoia over the biggest natural gas or petroleum find by the British oil firm off the south-east coast of Trinidad. This honourable man from Little England has already taken Trinidad and Tobago (which is more than a twin-island state) to the international court in Germany over the exclusive economic zone. What we are seeing here is the manifestation of the spirits of envy and greed! Bimshire wants the world to know how deep its hatred for Trinidad and Trinidadians lies!

In local parlance, a Bajan can give but he cannot take when it comes to picong and that was demonstrated many decades ago by a man who used to transport schoolchildren. He parked the bus near the bridge to the Mosquito Creek from the La Romaine/Sunset Cove side and went into the bushes through a road that no longer exists and took very long to return. Upon his reappearance he brutalised a female passenger in front of her brother after she scolded him. What followed next was a lesson in martial arts after which the beaten driver left all the schoolchildren behind. When he reached Point Fortin and complained to the owner of the bus about pains all over his body, the latter later said that he too would have beaten the Bajan, after hearing what took place before.

I am happy that the Roaring Lion lived long enough to write a book on the history of calypso or ballade, the art form which some facetious Barbadians want to claim in their aim to chip away at its origins. The fact that Barbadians were the first to sing calypso in English is a testimony that it was sung in patois before and French as well! On the diplomatic level it is a wait and see attitude with Bridgetown acting as the aggressor. Now I hold no brief for Mr Stephen Kangal (MOM) when I say that most of his advice goes unheeded and one hopes of a departure from such a stance.

JEFFREY M JOSEPH
Fyzabad